Form No. 10-300 „ AO-1 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM
SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS ______TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS______NAME
HISTORIC Fort Snelling--Mendota Bridge AND/OR COMMON Mendota Bridge ! LOCATION STREET & NUMBER State Trunk Highway 55 at Minnesota River —NOT FOR PUBLICATION* CITY. TOWN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Mendota Hetgfoi^UXVICINITY OF First and Third STATE CODE COUNTY CODE f Minnesota 22 Dakota 037
CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS PRESENT USE —DISTRICT .XPUBLIC N/A_OCCUPIED _AGRICULTURE —JMUSEUM _BUILDING(S) _PRIVATE —UNOCCUPIED —COMMERCIAL —PARK X.STRUCTURE —BOTH —WORK IN PROGRESS —EDUCATIONAL —PRIVATE RESIDENCE _SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITION ACCESSIBLE —ENTERTAINMENT —RELIGIOUS —OBJECT _IN PROCESS —YES: RESTRICTED —GOVERNMENT —SCIENTIFIC —BEING CONSIDERED X.YES: UNRESTRICTED —INDUSTRIAL X_TRANSPORTATION —NO —MILITARY —OTHER: OWNER OF PROPERTY
NAME Minnesota Department of Transportation STREET & NUMBER Transportation Building, John Ireland Blvd. CITY. TOWN STATE St. Paul VICINITY OF Minnesota I LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION
COURTHOUSE. REGISTRY OF DEEDS.ETC. Dakota County Courthouse
STREET & NUMBER
CITY. TOWN STATE Hastings Minnesota | REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS Donald R. Torbert, Significant Architecture in the History TITLE of Minnesota
DATE 1969 —FEDERAL —STATE —COUNTY ^.LOCAL Minneapolis Urban Design Study - Minneapolis Planning Commission STATE——————————— CITY. TOWN Minneapolis Minnesota DESCRIPTION
CONDITION CHECK ONE CHECK ONE
—EXCELLENT —DETERIORATED —UNALTERED -XORIGINALSITE X.GOOD _RUINS .^ALTERED Mnvpn r>ATF —FAIR _ UNEXPOSED (reconditioned)
DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE The Mendota Bridge is located at the Minnesota River crossing of State Trunk Highway 55, 0.5 miles southeast of the junction of State Trunk Highway 5 and 1.7 miles above the river's mouth. The bridge joins Dakota County with Hennepin County at the municipality of Mendota Heights (Dakota County) supplying direct access to the Twin Cities for the residents of Scott, Dakota, and Rice counties, although this function has now been partially negated by the construction of the Mississippi River bridge of Interstate Highway 35E.
According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation - Structure Inventory Sheet, it is a steel-reinforced continuous arch concrete bridge consisting of 13 spans in the*main unit and 6 spans in the approach units for^a total length of 4119 feet and a maximum span length of 304 feet. The 13 main unit spans rest on 12 piers 304 feet apart, anchored 70 feet beneath the bed of the river. The navigable vertical clearance is 220 feet. The deck width (out-out) is 60.8 feet with a roadway width of over 48 feet, carrying four lanes of traffic. There are 5.5 foot sidewalks along each side of the roadway. In American Building Carl Condit has described the Mendota Bridge as being "divided into twelve (sic) spans of paired parabolic ribs." (p. 255) It was built in 1926, reconditioned in 1968, and retains virtually total structural integrity, including piers, arches, spandrels', deck, and railings.
It should be noted that some piers of this bridge, along with the west approach, are within the boundary of the Fort Snelling Historic District but the bridge is neither included nor mentioned in the nomination. 01 SIGNIFICANCE
PERIOD AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW
—PREHISTORIC _ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC —COMMUNITY PLANNING —LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE —RELIGION —1400-1499 _ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC —CONSERVATION —LAW —SCIENCE . —1500-1599 _AGRICULTURE —ECONOMICS —LITERATURE —SCULPTURE —1600-1699 _ARCHITECTURE —EDUCATION —MILITARY —SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN —1700-1799 _ART ^ENGINEERING —MUSIC —THEATER —1800-1899 —COMMERCE —EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT —PHILOSOPHY ^.TRANSPORTATION X.1900- —COMMUNICATIONS —INDUSTRY —POLITICS/GOVERNMENT —OTHER (SPECIFY) —INVENTION
SPECIFIC DATES 1925-26 - Walter Hall Wheeler and Engineers C.A.P. Turner ______STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Mendota Bridge is nationally significant for its superb design and for the fact that at the time of construction it was the longest continuous concrete arch bridge in the world. It is one of the most prominent of the.Twin Cities 1 nationally renowned concrete arch bridges of the 1920s.
Two prominent American bridge authorities, Carl Condit and David Plowden, have recognized the significance of the Twin Cities' concrete arch bridges and the Mendota bridge in particular. As Plowden points out, "the first really sophisti cated American program of concrete highway bridge construction evolved around Minnesota's Twin Cities." This happened, says Condit, because here "the Mississippi , and Minnesota rivers offered the engineers numerous opportunities to try their ingenuity." The bridge was built in 1925-26 to replace an antiquated ferry which since the mid-nineteenth century had provided the only Minnesota River crossing between Fort Snelling in Hennepin County and Mendota in Dakota County. It was constructed after the plans of Minneapolis engineer Walter H. Wheeler and nationally prominent engineer C.A.P. Turner Company Associates, and was officially opened on November 8, 1926, amidst great fanfare. A parade and two huge caravans of an estimated 15,000 automobiles met at the middle of the bridge where the governor untied formal golden ropes. The occasion was marked by a telegram from President Calvin Coolidge acknowledging the bridge's dedication to the "Gopher Gunners" of the 151st Field Artillery who died in World War I. The $1,870,000 structure, Plowden states, "is usually considered to be the most sophisticated design for a concrete arch built in the 1920s," apart from some of the West Coast bridges. Condit writes that "the whole complex of ribs, spandrel posts, and long deck has a finely articulated quality that has seldom been matched in American bridge design." QMAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Condit, Carl W. American Building. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968 p.255. Minneapolis Board of Education. Bridges of Minneapolis and the State of Minnesota (mimeograph), Social Studies Bulletin No. 56. Work Projects Administration Project 165-1-285 (3), April, 1942, pp.8-9. Minnesota Department of Transportation. Structure Inventory Sheet, Bridge No. 4190, 1 & 2, September 23, 1977. Plowden, David. Bridges; The Spans of North America. New York: Viking Press. 1974. p.299 ^GEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY 5. 75 acres (surface area of bridge; no approaches in
UTM REFERENCES nomination)
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VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION The nominated property is the bridge structure, as located between the termini of the bridge railings at the two approaches, as shown on the accompanying U.S.G.S. map.
LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES
STATE CODE COUNTY CODE Minnesota 22 Dakota 037 STATE CODE COUNTY CODE Minnesota 22 Hennepin 053 FORM PREPARED BY NAME/TITLE Robert M. Frame III, Research Historian, State Historic Preservation Office ORGANIZATION DATE Minnesota Historical Society May 12. 1978 STREET & NUMBER TELEPHONE Fort Snelling. Buildina 612-726-1171 CITY OR TOWN STATE St. Paul Minnesota STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATION THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS:
NATIONAL JL_ STATE___ LOCAL___
As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register apd certify that it has bjjen evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.
Russell W. Fridley ' TITLE DAT! State Historic Preservation Officer
GPO 892-453 '-• NFS FWm 1
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet
Section number
Note: These changes apply to Fort Snelling-Mendota Bridge in Dakota County, Minnesota.
REFERENCE NUMBER: 78001534
STATE: MINNESOTA
COUNTY: Dakota
RESOURCE NAME (HISTORIC)
CITY: Mendota Heights
VICINITY OF:
ADDRESS: Mn. Hwy. 55 over Mississippi River
CERTIFICATION DATE:
REMOVED DATE:
COMMENTS:
JUN 1 7 1988 Nina M. Archabal Date State Historic Preservation Officer